Friday, May 18, 2012

Police protest at cuts

by New Worker correspondent

AROUND 35,000 off-duty police officers from forces
throughout England
and Wales
marched through London last
Thursday – the same day as public sector unions Unite, PCS
and UCU were staging their third one-day
national strike over pension cuts.

The police were
protesting at Con-Dem Coalition cuts of 20 per cent to police force budgets,
which will result in job cuts and wage cuts, and against creeping privatisation
of traditional police functions.

It is against the law
for police to take strike action; otherwise the numbers attending would have
been far greater. Thousands who had to be on duty that day sent messages of
support.

Among those leading
the march were the recently resigned former Chief Constable of Glamorgan,
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons Home
Affairs Committee,

The march was joined
and supported by members of the Occupy campaign.

Prison officers also
took part in the 10th May Day of Action by public sector workers with a series
of unofficial protest meetings – in defiance of the law which also bars them
from striking.

The Prison Officers’
Association claims that more than 80 per cent of its 25,000 members supported
the stoppages until a threatened injunction forced them back to work

A POA spokesperson said:
“This has been a great success in raising the public's awareness to the
inherent dangers that the coalition government's policy change will bring to
the prison service in the future."